Where witchcraft lives.

London: The Aquarian Press, 1962. First Edition. . Hardcover. See Description. Small 8vo. pp. xi, [1], 7-112. Bound in publisher’s pale gray-green cloth. The binding is clean and tight with only the most miniscule signs of bumping to the upper corner tip of the front board. The dust jacket is price clipped on the inner flap and shows spots of wear and rubbing to the extremities. The head cap of the jacket spine is chipped (15 x 13 mm). The rear jacket displays some mild soiling and a couple of small tears (sealed). An ink stamp from the U.S. distributer Wehman Bros. ("Wehman Bros. Publishers 159 Main Street Hackensack, N.J") is present in the lower margin of the title page. Interior pages are generally clean. Pages 92-93 contain a small, light manufacturing smudge. Doreen Valiente (1922-1999), often called "the mother of modern witchcraft" was a founding figure in the contemporary Wicca movement. During the 1950’s, while she served as high priestess in Gerald Gardner’s Brickett Wood coven, Valiente re-worked much of Gardner’s "Book of Shadows" liturgy into forms still used by many in the Craft today. Later Valiente led a successful fight in Britain against proposed anti-witchcraft legislation. Valiente’s first book, "Where Witches Live," contains her own primary research into the folklore, witch traditions and witch trials of county Sussex. Valiente also included modern witchcraft practices. According to Ronald Hutton: "the greatest value of her first book to a historian…lies in its portrayal of witch ceremonies in the very early 1960’s" [Ronald Hutton, The triumph of the moon. Oxford, 1999, p. 310].